Power consumption in mobile phones has been a main issue for the telecommunication industry, especially with the ever increasing number and complexity of applications in smartphones. A lot of effort has been spent to reduce the power consumption of the mobile phones, e.g. via fast dormancy and other power saving modes.
Another way of reducing power consumption is for the mobile phone to actively select the most suitable Radio Access Technology (RAT) for a given operating mode, such as voice call, internet surfing etc., in order to not use more power than necessary. Selection of RAT for this purpose is disclosed in US 2009/0068969 and US 2010/0075665, both to Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.
RAT selection in accordance with the referenced patent applications may be highly beneficial for reducing unnecessary power consumption in mobile radio devices. However, power saving is not always an important issue. It may be desirable for mobile radio devices to stay connected rather than to save power, in order to reduce latency, and/or to optimise the available bandwidth.